Tau Ceti, Latinized from τ Ceti, is a single star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under 12 light-years from the Solar System, it is a relatively nearby star and the closest solitary G-class star. The star appears stable, with little stellar variation, and is metal-deficient relative to the Sun.
The Marathon Trilogy is a science fiction first-person shooter video game series from Bungie, originally released for the Classic Mac OS. The name of the series is derived from the giant interstellar colony ship that provides the main setting for the first game; the ship is constructed out of the Martian moon Deimos. The series is often regarded as a spiritual predecessor of Bungie's Halo series.
Battlezone II: Combat Commander is a hybrid tank shooter, first-person shooter and real-time strategy video game, developed by Pandemic Studios, and published by Activision in 1999-2000. It is the sequel to the 1998 game Battlezone, in which players pilot various futuristic vehicles across different planets, along with building and managing additional units and structures. The game's story focuses on a conflict during an alternative 1990s period, in which humanity explores space for resources only to encounter an alien race in the process that they become locked in combat with. Although met with great enthusiasm, the game generated negative reviews due to bugs and other complaints by players, though retrospective reviews were more positive.
CRL Group plc was a British video game development and publishing company. Originally CRL stood for "Computer Rentals Limited". It was based in King's Yard, London and run by Clem Chambers.
YZ Ceti is a red dwarf star in the constellation Cetus. Although it is relatively close to the Sun at just 12 light years, this star cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is classified as a flare star that undergoes intermittent fluctuations in luminosity. YZ Ceti is about 13 percent the mass of the Sun and 17% of its radius.
Marathon 2: Durandal is a first-person shooter video game, part of the science fiction Marathon Trilogy by Bungie. It was released on November 24, 1995. The game is mostly set on the fictional planet of Lh'owon, homeworld of the S'pht, and once again the player takes the role of a shipboard security officer from the Marathon. This is the only game in the series to be officially released for Windows and Xbox 360 XBLA in addition to the Mac. The unofficial Aleph One community enhancement, built on engine source opened by Bungie in 1999, allows the game to be played on many other platforms. The entire game including assets was released for free to the public by Bungie in 2005, now commonly bundled for distribution with Aleph One.
Pete Cooke is a British computer games programmer, best known for his work published in the 1980s for the ZX Spectrum.
Earthlight is a horizontally scrolling shooter published for the ZX Spectrum in 1988 by Firebird Software. Written by Pete Cooke, Earthlight features parallax scrolling and shadow effects, a novelty for the Spectrum.
Tau Ceti is a video game published in 1985 by CRL for the ZX Spectrum and converted to the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS. It was designed and programmed by Pete Cooke. The world, set on Tau Ceti III orbiting Tau Ceti, is displayed using 3D graphics with shadow effects. The planet has a day and night cycle.
Driller is a 1987 puzzle video game. It was written by British developers Major Developments and published by Incentive Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. It uses the Freescape 3D game engine.
Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future is a 1986 video game by Virgin Games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 home computer systems. It is based on the classic British comic strip Dan Dare. The Commodore 64 version was considerably different in gameplay to the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC versions.
Wing Commander: Privateer is an adventure space trading and combat simulator computer game released by Origin Systems in September 1993. Privateer and its storyline is part of the Wing Commander series. The player takes the role of Grayson Burrows, a "privateer" who travels through the Gemini Sector, one of many sectors in the Wing Commander universe. Unlike Wing Commander, the player is no longer a navy pilot, but a freelancer who can choose to be a pirate, a merchant, a mercenary or any of the above in some combination. The player may follow the built-in plot but is free to adventure on his own, even after the plot has been completed.
The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun and the Solar System are a staple element in many works of the science fiction genre.
Empire! is a space combat and trading video game designed by Andrew Glaister and published by Firebird Software in 1986 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC.
Starfox is a video game published by Ariolasoft on their Reaktor label in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC. The player assumes the role of Hawkins, a space fighter pilot charged with protecting the Hyturian star system from invading alien forces. The game uses wireframe and shaded vector graphics to depict combat, in a similar fashion to games such as Elite and Starstrike 2, which was also created by Realtime Games. Ariolasoft had previously published the Electronic Arts titles Skyfox and Arcticfox and the name was chosen to build on the success of those titles. The US Commodore 64 release was titled The Rubicon Alliance.
Avatar: The Game is a third-person action video game based on James Cameron's film Avatar. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii and Nintendo DS on December 1, 2009, with a PSP version later released on December 7. It uses the same technology as the film to be displayed in stereoscopic 3D. As of May 19, 2010, the game has sold nearly 2.7 million copies. It was followed by a second video game released for the franchise titled Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (2023).
Codename MAT is a space combat simulator published in 1984 by Micromega for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC written by Derek Brewster. The game is similar to Atari, Inc.'s Star Raiders from 1979. Both games allow switching between front and aft-facing views and have strategic chart and scan modes. While Star Raiders has the player fighting Zylons, in Codename MAT the enemies are Myons.
Pirate Galaxy is a free-to-play, massive multiplayer online game written in Java. Players can operate spaceships, explore a collection of planets, mine minerals, and fight other players and enemies in the planetary combat. The game features 3D graphics and runs from a downloadable client.
TAUCETI Unknown Origin is an upcoming survival role-playing first-person shooter video game developed and published by BadFly Interactive. The game is set in the same universe as Dead Effect and Dead Effect 2.
Project Hail Mary is a 2021 science fiction novel by American novelist Andy Weir. Set in the near future, it centers on school-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace, who wakes up from a coma afflicted with amnesia. He gradually remembers that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to find a means of reversing a solar dimming event that could cause the extinction of humanity.
